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It sounds like you're mainly asking about big box stores. I don't know about Barnes & Noble, but there is a Borders at Zafarano (in the area where Rodeo Road and Cerrillos road intersect) and another in Sanbusco center off of Guadalupe and Montezuma. There are Walgreens, Target, Home Depot, Best Buy, Lowes, Kmart and the China-Mart you mentioned. The Wal-Mart is not a superstore. There's also a Sam's Club.

There are two main malls and an outlet mall. There are number of smaller strip malls and specialty malls around town and off the plaza.

Not particularly. It's one of the 'main drags' along with St Michael's Drive, St. Francis Drive and Rodeo Road. Cerrillos is zoned business on almost it's entire length through town. There are homes on the streets just off of Cerrillos, but for the most part it could be a strip in any town in the U.S. For that reason it doesn't exactly have the character you might find in some other areas. Cerrillos is overwhelmed as an artery, and living near it means you'd be using it regularly to do your daily stuff. It can get old quick. It was named Cerrillos Road because at one time it was literally the road out of the heart of Santa Fe to Cerrillos, a town to the south.

I think from a real estate perspective, it's a buzz line in Santa Fe like saying "and you're just minutes from the freeway.". It's considered a plus because it is a main artery, busy or not. Then again, so is I-40 in Albuquerque, and I'd rather beat out my own flaming head with a sledgehammer than live next to it. Also, since Cerrillos is an old artery, most of the homes near it are older, and relatively reasonable in price. I understand wanting to be on the north side. It's beautiful in the foot hills, but that is where a lot of the price inflation has occurred. There's a lot of knowledgeable locals on this forum. If you give them some specifics as to what you're looking for (price range/proximity to places/amenities) they might have some suggestions you haven't considered. Good luck with your search!

When and how much further do you think the Santa Fe housing will decline, before bottoming out?

12 - 18 mos.??

another 15 - 20 % drop??

I must admit, at the current level, I am not a buyer!

Of course the real answer is "nobody knows". We can all opine as much as we want (and those of you who read Joe Monahan's excellent political blog will have noticed that even he has decided he knows about the Santa Fe real estate market), but the answer is "it depends".
It depends on people feeling confident enough to get a mortgage - even at historic low rates, the banks here are aggressively marketing mortgages and can't find enough buyers.
It depends on the rest of the US - all of us realtors have a clutch of anxious buyers who can't make a move until their house in San Diego/ Scottsdale/Connecticut home is sold
It depends on people's overall confidence
It depends on whether the Santa Fe market will just steadily plough through the 18 months of inventory on hand, or whether as soon as things pick up there'll be a flood of resales suddenly coming online.

So, who knows? When the market starts picking up, rates will probably start going up too. So now might be a great time to buy.
Or it might not ;-}

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